Hmmm Koulibaly would be interesting. Forgot about him. Wonder if Napoli will finally decide to cash out.
Just not convinced with attacking full backs, and the need for them. Tierney is more than enough for one side and we would actually have enough to sort out to deal with absence of Xhaka who helps the LB to push up. Would prefer the RB to mainly be someone reliable defensively, a bit like Bacary Sagna used to be for us. The #10 and forwards can take care of attack themselves and have confidence to be fluid position-wise (roaming, interchange) as long as there was reliable defensive support from CM and full backs.
On paper it should be good enough to compete with the current squads of Utd, Leicester and Liverpool for the spots behind City and Chelski. Though I don't think United won't need that much to potentially compete for the league - a high quality DM/CM and perhaps a CB. Liverpool and Leicester should be improving their squads as well.
It's why i DO think he would be good for us
Tierney isn't even that attacking if you look at it, though, just one goal and two assists this season. He has a great engine, is defensively solid and has a good cross, but I think he's also somewhat limited in terms of passing/dribbling in the final third. I think we could afford an attacking right back in our line up. I do flip back and forth myself between wanting Hakimi and Mukiele (and Mazraoui, but I have injury concerns). Reason I went with Hakimi, is because I want us to play exciting attacking football again and he can contribute a lot both with pressures when we play a high line (which we can with Saliba and Gabriel, not with Luiz, Holding, Mari) and he's just a great technician so he can create and combine in the final third. Pepe on the right isn't much of a creator, think a creative force behind him will allow him to play closer to the goal and focus on what he does best: being a goalscoring winger.
We haven't really played three up front except when we play 3-4-3, though. 4-3-3 with an anchor is a formation I haven't seen from Arteta as far as I can remember. It's mostly been 4-2-3-1. I think our lack of goals up front stem mostly from issues in our midfield, rather than goalscoring ability on the wings (be it Saka, Pepe, or Auba). Our 'double pivot' just lacks progressive passes and carries to put our attackers into position.
Heat map analysis shows Tierney as generally quite attacking for us despite productivity (stats) in a stop start season for him, and as mentioned, with Xhaka supporting that. We'll see where getting better CM's takes us, I don't want a revolution in formation at this point even though I find it tempting at times, particularly in my mind to go with something closer to two strikers, which just isn't going to happen for a while at least.
Yeah, that's fair. He is high up the pitch, but he does have the engine to be where he needs to be defensively.
Yeah, the strategy could result in vulnerability to counterattacks when the press/high-line isn't executed properly. So the concerns are valid. I am going by the assumption that we'd have a functioning tactical plan, which might be too much to ask of Arteta (I'm hoping for a new manager).
Didn't say by the way but the reason I responded to your WL in the first place was it looked good, just with my question about full back. Grealish with personality and left footed is good for our needs, definitely would have him in my WL as well, and the others in there look.good also. If the club is interested in Manor Solomon they really should be looking at Olise also.
Looks like that he is just a goalscorer.
